Monday, November 2, 2020 - FDR SP, Country Store, Warm Springs Winery

Some people know how to sleep in.  Wish I were one of them!!  On the plus side, I have ample time to do all my morning stuff, including an hour of yoga and writing yesterday’s blog!  Around eight-thirty or nine the ladies begin emerging and everyone has some form of edible to start the day. There’s some electrical experimentation required to get the coffee maker to work.  It turned out that the problem was Marilyn’s multiplug, for whatever reason.  Connie brought her decaf and I brought my hazelnut decaf for Marilyn and me.  Ginger, of course, had her tea.  

We needed to get to the office before ten o’clock so as to pay the other half of our rent and to collect the key so we could get back into the cabin.  We were pretty close to ten!  There is wifi at the office!  That’s when I learned that Blogger’s update has rendered it nearly useless for me!  I vent mightily and give up. 

Masks required and only five people at a time in the office/shop

The last day for the pumpkin display!  They were gone later in the day!

The view from the office is magnificent.  We aren’t really seeing much in the way of fall colors;  but it is still so peaceful.  We finally decide to head back to the cabin to organize for the day and to have something more substantial to eat before setting out on the day’s adventure.

Our first stop is the Country Store, to check out their menu and hours and – oh look at that!  There’s a gift shop!  Among their treasures we find local wines and Ginger and Connie talk to the shopkeeper to learn that there is a winery quite close by.  Our plan is to take a hike that begins across the street and then reward ourselves with a wine tasting.  It was a good plan, if a bit faulty.  It turns out that getting to the trail head is quite a hike in and of itself, and it’s along the road.  We decide to drive a bit and see if perhaps that isn’t true;  but it is.  So it’s on to Warm Springs Winery!

(So people don't yell at me for not being in any pictures!)

He's a little iridescent bug that looks like a jewel!

What a delight!  Aubrey is our sommelier and he is a treat!  There are already several people in the small tasting room and Aubrey gives us each a wine slushy to enjoy outside in the fresh air until it is our turn.  One of the gentlemen comes out quite quickly and declares that he will never be a wine drinker!  He prefers Royal Crown!  In a bit another couple arrives, Sarah and Jerl, who are delightful, even though Jerl tells us that he just heard that New York City is boarding up in preparation for riots tomorrow because of the election!!  

Our turn comes to sample seventeen different local wines.  There is non-stop patter from Aubrey about the wines and his life and his three serious concussions!  He has degrees in math and chemistry and we never find out why he is doing his” fun job” instead of using one of them.  He teaches us a trick for finding the value of a number squared!

And he's adorable, too!

Mmmmmm!  Slushies!  Red or white sangria and both are delicious!

It turns out that Sarah and Jerl are from near Leesburg and by the end of the tasting Sarah has Ginger’s contact information so she can learn more about Ginger’s Mexico tours!  We all take advantage of the sampling special and the 10-31-2020 special which said that for ten dollars we could sample all seventeen of the wines, keep our glass, and if we bought three bottles we would get one free (10-3-1)

Aubrey carries our case of wine out to the car for us and we head home.  Along the way we happen upon a lovely view of the sunset, which is good since we won’t make it home in time to see it from the lake, as we had planned.

Once home I make chili for dinner and we heat up the corn muffins to go with it.  Ginger has brought her homemade salsa and chips for an appetizer and we have the Yuengling Hershey’s chocolate porter for our beverage.

After dinner we work most of a puzzle called the “Bipartisan Puzzle”.  According to the box it has “larger, simper pieces for republicans and smaller, more complex pieces for democrats and it meets in the middle”!

Connie and Marilyn head to bed around eight-thirty or nine and Ginger and I put some more pieces into the puzzle before calling it quits a couple of hours later.  All in all another lovely day doing some of my favorite things with some of my favorite people!